Speaking of “TEDtalks,” it occurs to me that I started this website after viewing Jill Bolte-Taylor’s peerless description of her enlightenment experience as a result of having had a stroke which incapacitated the left hemisphere of her brain. I have never shared that presentation and I should.
Anyone interested in Ascension will want to hear what Bolte-Taylor has to say. While she describes enlightenment, which is only one aspect of Ascension [Ascension is “enlightenment plus”], her discussion is right at the center of the dimension opening that many of us will be experiencing before or during 2012.
Here is her talk, “My Stroke of Insight”:
Bolte-Taylor had a brother with schizophrenia and became a neurobiologist in part to discover how to help him. Her talk was given in Monterrey, CA, in February 2008 and is a terrific presentation.
As a neurobiologist, she was fascinated to observe her own stroke and describes it in gripping detail. Our left hemisphere thinks methodically about the past and the future. It categorizes and organizes information, associates with the past everything we’ve ever learned and correlates it with its notions of the future.
Our right hemisphere is aware of the present moment, takes in the universal energy and experiences it in terms of feelings, sights, sounds, etc.
It was her left hemisphere which shut down leaving only her right hemisphere functioning.
When her left hemisphere failed, she became a child in a woman’s body. During the progress of her stroke, she could not identify the position of her body in space. Her spirit expanded like a great whale in a sea and she “found Nirvana.”
She realized that she was still alive and had found enlightnment and therefore everyone could also find it as well.
Hers was a “Stroke of Insight” and, seeing what a contribution she could make by telling her story, she decided to recover from the stroke. It took years. Now her life is dedicated to letting others know what is available out there and in here.
We may not need to suffer a stroke to experience the enlightenment she achieved. We may not have to endure the depression that Eckhart Tolle did or the hostility that Byron Katie had to go through.
Nonetheless, we are at the moment clearing our negative patterns through illness, relationship breakdown, and financial stress, but our Ascension, if we intend to experience it and do the necessary work, is ensured and we already know of its impending arrival.
People like Bolte-Taylor, Tolle, Katie and others, however, have again been “wayshowers,” introducing us to what is possible and what awaits us.
I attach a write-up by Vicky Anderson of Bolte-Taylor’s stroke process.
Namaste,
Steve
Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D, is a Neuro-Anatomist who was trained at Harvard Medical School. Her specialty is in the postmortem investigation of the human brain as it relates to schizophrenia and the other severe mental illnesses.
In her book, titled My Stroke of Insight, she writes about her experiences in 1996, while suffering a form of arterio-venous malformation stroke, which allowed her the rare privilege of being able to study a stroke as it was actually occurring. During this stroke, she was able to watch as her own brain functions shut down, one by one – her ability to walk, talk, read and write.
The swelling and trauma of the stroke placed pressure on the dominant left hemisphere of Dr. Taylor’s brain. As a result, she was unable to recall any part of her life. But, in the absence of the neural circuitry of her left hemisphere, her consciousness shifted into the present moment and the functions of her right hemisphere increased. This left her feeling expansive, totally at peace in the Universe and connected as part of it.
Dr. Taylor was forced to undergo major brain surgery to remove a large blood clot that was putting pressure on her language centers. Although the stroke damaged the left side of her brain, her recovery burst forth an avalanche of creative energy from the right side. She now travels the country educating audiences about the beauty of the brain. In 2008, she was chosen as one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. (Vicky Anderson, “Duality and the Law of Polarity,” May 17, 2010, at https://hiddenlighthouse.wordpress.com/2010/05/17/duality-the-law-of-polarity/.)